The vehicle in your yard is costing you money right now
The coach in the yard is not resting. It is depreciating, insured, taxed, and financed. It is costing you whether you are watching it or not.
Insurance does not stop when the coach is parked. Finance payments do not pause. Depreciation continues. Road tax is due whether the vehicle moves or not.
A 53 seater sitting idle is not neutral. It is negative. Every day it does not earn revenue, it costs you. The longer it sits, the worse the return on capital becomes.
Most operators think about utilisation when they have spare capacity. They should be thinking about it when they buy the vehicle. Because low utilisation does not just reduce profit. It destroys it.
Asset productivity is the difference between profit and loss
Two operators buy the same coach for the same price. One achieves 65% utilisation. The other achieves 40%.
The first operator generates enough revenue to cover costs, service debt, and deliver a return. The vehicle pays for itself and contributes to business growth.
The second operator struggles. Revenue does not cover the full cost of ownership. The vehicle becomes a liability. Growth stalls because capital is tied up in assets that are not performing.
Same vehicle. Same market. Different outcomes. The difference is utilisation.
The coaches you should not have bought
High utilisation makes marginal purchases viable. Low utilisation makes even good purchases unprofitable.
If a vehicle only works three days per week, the revenue from those three days has to cover the cost of owning it for seven. That is a high bar. Most jobs cannot deliver that return.
So you either take work at unsustainable prices to keep the coach moving, or you accept that the vehicle will never be profitable.
The operators who avoid this trap do not buy vehicles hoping to fill them. They buy vehicles they already have demand for. Utilisation is built in from day one, not discovered later.
Utilisation is not luck. It is planning.
Some operators assume utilisation is market dependent. Busy seasons bring high utilisation. Quiet seasons bring low utilisation. Nothing you can do about it.
This is wrong.
Utilisation is a function of fleet composition, pricing strategy, and demand management. If your fleet matches the work available, utilisation is high. If it does not, utilisation is low.
An operator running ten 53 seaters in a market that mostly needs 35 seaters will have low utilisation. Not because demand is weak. Because the fleet is misaligned.
An operator with a mixed fleet that can service different job types will have higher utilisation. Not because they are luckier. Because they built flexibility into their asset base.
The cost of holding spare capacity
Spare capacity feels safe. If a vehicle breaks down, you have a backup. If demand spikes, you can take the work. If a customer needs last minute availability, you can deliver.
But spare capacity is expensive. You are holding an asset that costs money daily, and using it occasionally. The cost of that optionality is constant. The benefit is intermittent.
Some spare capacity is sensible. Too much destroys profitability.
The operators who get this balance right track utilisation per vehicle. They know which coaches are working and which are not. They know whether spare capacity is justified, or whether they are holding assets they should sell.
Low utilisation is a signal, not a problem to accept
If a vehicle consistently sits idle, it is telling you something. Either you have too many vehicles, or you have the wrong vehicles, or your pricing is preventing bookings.
The response should not be to accept low utilisation as normal. It should be to fix the underlying issue.
If the vehicle type does not match demand, sell it and buy what the market needs. If pricing is too high to generate bookings, adjust it. If you genuinely have overcapacity, reduce the fleet before the holding cost erodes profitability.
Low utilisation is expensive. Ignoring it is even more expensive.
Utilisation tracking shows you what to buy next
Most operators buy vehicles based on gut feel. A customer asked for a certain size. A deal came up. A competitor is running that model.
None of this is strategic.
Utilisation data tells you what your market actually needs. If your 49 seaters run at 80% utilisation and your 35 seaters run at 40%, the next purchase decision is obvious.
You do not need more 35 seaters. You need more 49 seaters. Or you need to sell underperforming assets and replace them with vehicles that will actually work.
This is not guessing. It is using real operational data to guide capital allocation.
The fleet that works hardest wins
Revenue per vehicle is the metric that matters. Not fleet size. Not total turnover. Revenue per vehicle.
An operator with five coaches generating £600,000 is more profitable than an operator with ten coaches generating £800,000. Same market. Same work. Better asset productivity.
The difference is utilisation. The smaller fleet is working harder. Higher utilisation. Better return on capital. Less cost sitting idle.
Growth is not about owning more vehicles. It is about making the vehicles you own work harder.
Idle capacity is not a safety net. It is a cost centre.
You cannot afford to carry vehicles that do not earn. The insurance, finance, depreciation, and opportunity cost are too high.
Every idle day is a day you are paying rent to an asset that produces nothing. The longer that continues, the worse your return becomes.
The operators who run profitable fleets do not tolerate low utilisation. They track it. They manage it. They adjust fleet composition, pricing, and demand strategy to keep assets productive.
The coach in your yard is either earning or costing. There is no neutral.
If it is working, it is generating revenue that covers its cost and contributes to profit. If it is idle, it is consuming capital and delivering nothing.
The question is simple. Do you know which of your vehicles are earning their keep, and which are costing you money?
If the answer is no, you are not managing utilisation. You are hoping it works out.
And hope does not pay the finance bill.